1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle steering apparatus that includes a motor control unit used to drive a brushless motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a vehicle steering apparatus is an electric power steering apparatus. A brushless motor is used as a drive source that supplies a driving force to a steering mechanism of a vehicle. A motor control unit that controls driving of a brushless motor is usually configured to control the electric current that is supplied to a motor based on the output from a rotational angle sensor that detects the rotational angle of a rotor. As a rotational angle sensor, a resolver that outputs a sine-wave signal and a cosine-wave signal that correspond to the rotational angle (electrical angle) of a rotor is usually used. However, a resolver is expensive, and needs a large number of wires and a large installation space. Therefore, using a resolver as a rotational angle sensor hinders reduction in cost and size of a unit that includes a brushless motor.
US Patent No. 2007/0229021 A1 describes a sensorless drive method for driving a brushless motor without using a rotational angle sensor. According to the sensorless drive method, the induced voltage that varies depending on the rotational speed of a rotor is estimated in order to estimate the phase of a magnetic pole (electrical angle of the rotor). When the rotor is at a standstill or rotating at a considerably low speed, it is not possible to estimate the induced voltage. Therefore, the phase of the magnetic pole is estimated by another method. More specifically, a sensing signal is input in a stator, and a response of the motor to the sensing signal is detected. Then, the rotational position of the rotor is estimated based on the response of the motor.